


Baby, We Are The Fight

by blanchtt



Series: But We Exist [2]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 22:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10840998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blanchtt/pseuds/blanchtt
Summary: “Krystal Goderitch.” Beth looks sideways, sees as much as hears Krystal pop the gum she’s chewing, shake Cosima’s hand loosely, and then motion with her free hand as if to reach up and tap the side of her own nose. “Love your piercing, by the way. Totally boho-chic.”





	Baby, We Are The Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarahshelena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahshelena/gifts).



> Based on a very awesomely open-ended request where my favorite non-canon pairing becomes canon. Send me an AU and I'll write 5+ headcanons for it!

 

 

 

 

They crash at Cosima’s place, since Cosima offers.

 

“ _Hey_ ,” Cosima says, drawing the word out long as she opens the door wide, cocks a hip, and offers a hand to shake. Krystal, being closest, takes it. “I’m Cosima.”

 

“Krystal Goderitch.” Beth looks sideways, sees as much as hears Krystal pop the gum she’s chewing, shake Cosima’s hand loosely, and then motion with her free hand as if to reach up and tap the side of her own nose. “Love your piercing, by the way. Totally boho-chic.”

 

Cosima smiles, turns to Beth, and being face-to-face with her is startlingly different, no reflections here. It’s likely the glasses.

 

“And you must be Beth.” Cosima holds out her hands, motions around them, clearly amused, and says, “Welcome to the very first meeting of Clone Club.”

 

 

-

 

 

Sometimes she thinks of Katja, and it’s never the Katja she heard over the phone, the Katja she met only once, the Katja slick enough to outsmart _her_ for as long as she did. No. When she thinks of Katja now, it’s always the Katja splayed out in the backseat of her car, blood and matter splattered everywhere, and when she gets to remembering that it keeps her from sleeping.

 

Somehow, that haunts her more than all the other shit she’s seen in her line of her work. Because she knew Katja. Because Katja had her face. Because it could have been her.

 

“I feel it, too,” Beth admits late at night, weakness whispered into the curve of Krystal’s neck, face hidden like that makes it any better.

 

“You can talk to me,” Krystal says, and through no fault of her own, it's a nudge too far, everything already laid much too bare. Beth fights against that automatic instinct to turn away, to brush it off, to say _I can do it myself._

 

But Krystal’s palm cradles the base of her skull gently, fingers playing with the baby hairs at the nape of her neck, soothing and patient in the darkness, and _trying_ to let the tension out of her muscles, Beth takes a breath and thinks, maybe, that talking about it might not be such a bad idea.

 

 

-

 

 

The find their next clone in Bailey Downs, thanks to Cosima.

 

They convene at Alison’s house to discuss their next step, and even Krystal, who always has something to say, is speechless as they walk in, at the sight of not only Alison but another woman also sitting in Alison’s living room.

 

There’s silence, and then Alison smiles thinly, cracking-thin ice, and speaks, disappearing into the kitchen to get them all drinks and snacks.

 

“Bumped into her trying to sell Ramon product this afternoon. _That_ involved some quick thinking,” Alison continues from afar, and Beth sighs, reaches up, pinches the bridge of her nose because in any other scenario she’d be itching to break out the handcuffs and haul the both of them into the precinct. But Alison, _another woman with her face_ , comes back, puts the snacks and drinks on the coffee table, and motions for them all to take seats.

 

“But I think I pulled off the shady cousin explanation pretty well,” Alison says primly, and smiles as she motions to the woman in black who’s sitting arms crossed and scowling, wedged silently in a corner of the couch. “Anyway. Ladies, this is Sarah.”

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

Sarah is a runner. Beth’s seen it before. They only reason, she later learns, that Sarah even made an appearance at Alison's home is because Alison had a gun and Sarah didn’t.

 

(Jesus _fuck_ , Beth thinks, because her life is in shambles right now. But Alison with a gun is also a good thing, if it means at least one more of them knows how to shoot).

 

There’s no convincing Sarah to stick with them, and she leaves with a scoff and a roll of her eyes. Beth watches her stomp out of the Starbucks they'd chosen to meet at and hopes sincerely that nothing happens to her. Self-aware clones don’t seem to make it very far.

 

But there’s safety in numbers, and about two in the morning the next night there’s a pounding on the door of Cosima’s apartment. On hair-triggers, it wakes them all.

 

She sits up in bed, feels Krystal’s hand grasp hers, nails digging into her palm, and sees Cosima’s dark outline at the door of the bedroom (Cosima having wordlessly and graciously offered to sleep on her own couch and give them her room).

 

“Beth?”

 

“Got it,” she reassures them both as the only one with a firearm, and slips away, grabs her gun and peers through the peephole of the door. 

 

And heart skidding down to a normal rhythm at the sight, Beth sighs gratefully. It’s only Sarah, pacing agitatedly, who comes back to them with wide eyes and a split lip and bruised ribs ( _only_ and _lucky_ , Beth thinks incredulously) and decides to spend the night too because of a run-in with _her_.

 

 

-

 

 

Sarah doesn’t seem to get along with anybody. She’s already thoroughly pissed off Alison just by existing, Krystal has nothing in common with her, and Cosima’s taken a wary approach to possible friendship. That, and being cooped up all day, might be why Sarah’s decided to slink over and talk to her.

 

“I want to help,” Sarah offers, and as much as they need it, Beth wavers.

 

She thinks briefly – she’s only human – of Krystal dressing in their borrowed bedroom for the gala, of a thousand things she’d rather do with her right now than infiltrate DYAD. And so, not an answer just yet, Beth only says, “We can’t just shoot our way into DYAD."

 

They all seem to have a propensity for rushing blindly (or not so blindly) into things, for shooting first and asking questions later. But Sarah seems to bite her tongue, think, and then speak, and the conviction behind it, that _smirk_ , has Beth reconsidering their plan.

 

“Give me ten minutes and Cosima’s glasses and coat, and I’ll have the keys to Leekie’s office for you.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
